"4K" Ultra High Def TVs

So these are now out in the wild, along with AV amps and BR players that upscale to 4K, so there's just about content to go with one. In fact Youtube apparently now hosts 4K content as well, although you can't get to it through the normal website.

But yeah, at a minimum of £20k for a set (or an incredible £400k for the somewhat ridiculous Panasonic 150 inch model) these are as of yet not for the likes of you and I, but the next gen of TVs is offically here. Yay.

iHAZaCHEEZ3burger wrote:
So they are just ultra Hi-def tv's? How long before people can afford them?

Probably about three years before they're mainstream, and maybe five before they're properly affordable.

There is likely to be a bit of a format war between these and OLED screens though. These are higher res, but many are saying it's pointless for normal screen sizes, whereas OLED offers much lighter, thiner, more efficient and better quality screens at current resolutions.

iHAZaCHEEZ3burger wrote:
So they are just ultra Hi-def tv's? How long before people can afford them?

Probably about three years before they're mainstream, and maybe five before they're properly affordable.

There is likely to be a bit of a format war between these and OLED screens though. These are higher res, but many are saying it's pointless for normal screen sizes, whereas OLED offers much lighter, thiner, more efficient and better quality screens at current resolutions.

Except that the Sony 4K screens (80”, 55”) are already both 4K and OLED, so they've covered both bases.

iHAZaCHEEZ3burger wrote:
So they are just ultra Hi-def tv's? How long before people can afford them?

Probably about three years before they're mainstream, and maybe five before they're properly affordable.

There is likely to be a bit of a format war between these and OLED screens though. These are higher res, but many are saying it's pointless for normal screen sizes, whereas OLED offers much lighter, thiner, more efficient and better quality screens at current resolutions.

Except that the Sony 4K screens (80”, 55”) are already both 4K and OLED, so they've covered both bases.

Those are concept TVs, with no plans for an actual release, so not, not really.

Psychotext wrote:
Fine for those of us willing to rock 80"+ TVs or sit eye bleedingly close to their 50" TV... but probably not so worthwhile for everyone else.

To be frank, it hasn't stopped people shelling out for 1080p TVs on smaller models where 720p was sufficient, and let's not get started on the waste of time that is 3D. They'll sell whether people need them or not. It's a way of selling new and more expensive TVs.

I am not a tech person so this question could be stupid... But what's the point of having these TV's, if nothing is filmed for them? Or do all these HD cameras capture the images and are currently being reduced for 1080p? Also the same with games, will the "next gen" be able to output for 4k/8k TVs?

If I could afford it, I always go with the TV that provides the best signal processing(which are the big ones). TV/home cinema by its very nature is a mix of very old bad footage and new uncompressed goodness.

Recently I rewatched the avengers blu-ray on my friends (edit) 55HX853 using the motion flow smoothing option, and was surprised how it takes the 24p and subframes to look like 48p. Very different viewing experience completely.